The present invention relates to improved processes for spinning fibers that contain polybenzoxazole ("PBO") or polybenzothiazole ("PBT") polymer.
Lyotropic liquid crystalline polybenzoxazole and polybenzothiazole are not thermoplastic. They are typically made into fibers by dry-jet, wet-spinning techniques, in which a dope that contains the polybenzazole polymer and an acid solvent is spun through a spinneret, drawn across an air gap, and coagulated by contact with a fluid that dilutes the solvent and is a non-solvent for the polymer. The individual filaments formed by this process can be combined to form one or more fibers of varying diameter.
It is desirable to spin a large number of filaments in a short time and at a high rate of speed. It is also desirable to minimize the cross-sectional area of the individual filaments within a fiber, producing a continuous fiber with many low denier filaments rather than a few high denier filaments. However, thinner filaments have a greater tendency to break during spinning, especially at high speed and when the spinneret contains orifices for a large number of filaments. It is desirable to minimize the number of filament breaks.